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Story-telling
has been an integral part of the hasidic movement from its very beginnings in
the eighteenth century to the present day. Stories about the holy hasidic
leaders—the tsadikim, or rebbes—and their mystical powers have been a key
factor in attracting followers and maintaining their devotion. Such tales were
told by the tsadikim and their followers alike. The tsadikim saw them as a way
to promote the movement and justify their leadership; their followers saw them
as a way to exalt their masters, cleanse them of any shred of imperfection, and
defend them from every trace of criticism. No other social or religious
movement in the entire course of Jewish history has engaged so intensively in
the telling of stories, and nor have stories occupied such a central and
important place in any other intellectual movement within Judaism.

Originally
published in Hebrew and expanded for this English edition by a new
introduction, this book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the
history of hasidism or of Hebrew literature and the literary aspects of Jewish
popular culture. It acts both as a compendium of stories by theme and as a reference
work for the identification of the subject-matter, authors, editors, and
editions of books that have been a popular Jewish literary genre since the
second half of the eighteenth century. Hasidic tales have been reprinted many
times, anthologized, and even quoted by contemporary scholars, without the
identity of their authors or editors being known, and without any awareness of
their background and origin. In this important work, based on analysis of all
the published anthologies as well as tales scattered in a variety of obscure
sources, the author traces the sources and development of the different
stories.

An
introductory historical survey is followed by full discussions of the stories
themselves, grouped by subject. Among the themes covered are matchmaking and
marriages, childbirth and progeny, sickness, death and the world to come,
dybbuks and the powers of evil, apostasy, and many more.

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About The Author

Gedalyah Nigal is Emeritus Professor of the Literature of the Jewish People, Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of Magic, Mysticism and Hasidism: The Supernatural in Jewish Thought (1994), as well as several annotated editions of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collections of hasidic tales, critical editions of seminal early hasidic speculative works, a study of Jewish spirit-possession narratives, and many essays on hasidism, kabbalah, and related topics.